Book Information: Duty: a novel

from the publisherLieutenant Mark Palmer is the USS Modoc's legal officer when ordered by the ship's commanding officer, Captain Morgan Baxter Bennett III, to prosecute a veteran petty officer accused by a subordinate of homosexual harassment. Suspicion of murder suddenly is injected into the case when the accuser is lost overboard.

As Palmer pursues his investigation, he becomes dubious that the evidence supports the charges against the petty officer, Marion Arthur Lamm. Palmer risks his career by taking on his skipper and the prejudices of the Navy establishment. But Captain Bennett insists, amid threats to Palmer, that the prosecution move forward.

The suspense and conflict that envelop the protagonists are reminiscent of The Caine Mutiny Court Martial. Though Duty's setting is contemporary and the issues it addresses are as timely as today's headlines, at the heart of the story is a hero, Palmer, torn between different definitions of duty -- his conscience and moral principles on the one hand and his loyalty and dedication to his beloved Navy on the other.

A trial gets under way, pitting Palmer as reluctant yet conscientious prosecutor against Lamm's defense attorney, the deft and more experienced Lieutenant Larry Templeman. As the trial proceeds toward a climax, surprise testimony by witnesses for both sides adds to the tension. Lamm's fate is at stake, of course, but so is Palmer's personal and professional future.